Councils urged to tap into digital advances

The Local Government Association of Queensland (LGAQ) says councils are struggling to capitalise on the digital age.

It commissioned research which found while most councils want to introduce new technology to improve productivity and services, most do not have the tools to do so.

LGAQ president Margaret de Wit says the association will help councils identify and solve problems.

She says the changes will also require state and Federal Government support.

"We've got areas of Queensland of course that don't have good reception in terms of internet, so for them to really benefit from the digital economy they're going to need a lot more support," she said.

"We also have a problem in western areas of attracting the people with the right skill set to make this happen."

She says there is a lot of untapped potential in digital technology.

"Perhaps have a call centre in one area that can look after a whole big group of councils, we have some of that happening already in south-east Queensland," she said.

"Instead of having small units set up in every council to do every single function, because of computerisation in a lot of cases you could have one function for a whole range of councils operating out of one single place."

She says she would urge councils to take advantage of technology and centralise some services.

"With de-amalgamation every single area has to have its own system and that's where you can see that there is probably more costs out there than there needs to be, given that now with the digital economy a lot more could be done centrally and that's where we need a new way of thinking," she said.